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The Best Episodes of Dad's Army Season 3

Every episode of Dad's Army Season 3 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Dad's Army Season 3!

Binge this in 6h 42m•Peaking at 8.7/10

Introducing the Walmington-On-Sea home guard. During WW2, in a fictional British seaside town, a ragtag group of Home Guard local defense volunteers prepare for an imminent German invasion.

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 1 - The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones
    7.5/10(188 votes)

    #1 - The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones

    S3:E1

    Mainwaring's lecture is a total mess due to gas masks. To obtain rationed petrol, Joe convinces Jones to volunteer his butcher's van as platoon car. Alas, after they worked for days to make it fit for the platoon, HQ has it converted to gas. Meanwhile, to Mainwaring's snobbish horror, vulgar grocer Hodges makes his haughty entry as ARP Chief Warden, and rival rooster in town and church hall.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 2 - Battle School
    7.6/10(185 votes)

    #2 - Battle School

    S3:E2

    It's Mainwaring's platoon's turn for a weekend of guerrilla warfare training at a rural facility. Thanks to train delay and the captain's disastrous sense of direction, they arrive late for dinner and sleep through breakfast. They do rather poorly at survival course, but Mainwaring's determined to redeem their honour by attempting a challenge nobody has ever pulled off: capturing the officer's HQ.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 3 - The Lion Has 'Phones
    7.6/10(181 votes)

    #3 - The Lion Has 'Phones

    S3:E3

    Mainwaring gives the platoon a lecture in communications but when a German plane crashes into the town's reservoir, it becomes obvious that many of the men have no idea how to use a telephone and, when Mainwaring gets through to the main exchange to notify the incident, the operator is no help.

    Director:Harold Snoad
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 4 - The Bullet Is Not for Firing
    7.9/10(171 votes)

    #4 - The Bullet Is Not for Firing

    S3:E4

    Mainwaring is extremely annoyed that the platoon – sans Godfrey, who was too slow – have used up all their ammunition firing in vain at a low-flying German aeroplane. An inquiry is ordered – along with a new case of ammunition, which duly arrives. The captain in charge, taking place in the church hall in competition with choir practice, feels it a waste of time but talks the men through what happened.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 5 - Something Nasty in the Vault
    8.1/10(189 votes)

    #5 - Something Nasty in the Vault

    S3:E5

    An unannounced bank inspector from head office is far from impressed by Mainwaring's bumbling while handling some minor cash deposit and black market matters with Jones and Walker. He gets really angry about the way military HG considerations seem systematically to supersede bank interests. After an air raid alarm, an unexploded Nazi bomb is 'found' in the basement strong room and nearly made to explode by Mainwaring and Arthur. Bomb squad captain Rogers takes charge, but while he gets help, the men can't resist 'helping' themselves.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 6 - Room at the Bottom
    7.9/10(180 votes)

    #6 - Room at the Bottom

    S3:E6

    Wilson secretly enjoys passing on HQ Captain Bailey's finding that Mainwaring's captain's commission in the original local militia days is invalid, so he'll be reduced to lieutenant, as befits a platoon commander. When HQ concludes he's actually not even an NCO, he has to join the ranks under the Guard drill instructor he ordered himself. After the platoon's embarrassing failure at an exercise, everyone wants to have him reinstated, except Frazer, who smells opportunity.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 7 - Big Guns
    7.3/10(160 votes)

    #7 - Big Guns

    S3:E7

    A large field gun has been delivered for demonstration but none of the platoon know how it works. After a process of trial and error using models to represent the town, the time comes for the gun to be fired but the men get tangled up in the netting enclosing it.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 8 - The Day the Balloon Went Up
    8.1/10(183 votes)

    #8 - The Day the Balloon Went Up

    S3:E8

    After Mainwaring complains of sloppy slauting, a runaway barrage balloon appears with the Verger clinging onto it. He's rescued and various people, including Godfrey's sister Cissie, are asked to hang on until Mainwaring takes charge. Unfortunately, it takes off in the breeze with Mainwaring on the other end of its rope, dragging him through trees and a haystack until it stops on a railway bridge. The men are about to secure it but then an officer comes by and, in order to perfect the saluting so beloved of Mainwaring, they have to let go of the balloon.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 9 - War Dance
    7.4/10(165 votes)

    #9 - War Dance

    S3:E9

    Pike's work is suffering due to distraction from his girlfriend Violet, whom Mainwaring regards as common as her mother used to clean for him. Furthermore, at the upcoming platoon dance, Pike is going to announce his engagement to her, which alarms Wilson as Mavis would never let her baby go.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 10 - Menace from the Deep
    8.4/10(203 votes)

    #10 - Menace from the Deep

    S3:E10

    The platoon are on guard duty on a derelict pier, which they have reached by boat but, thanks to Pike's clumsiness, the boat has floated away, carrying their food. Hodges rows out in a children's boat to tell them to 'put that light out' and falls into the sea. Dispensary chocolate turns out to be a cardboard display but worse is to come when a floating mine appears.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 11 - Branded
    8.7/10(236 votes)

    #11 - Branded

    S3:E11

    Godfrey reveals that he was a Conscientious Objector during WWI, leading Mainwaring and some of the platoon to brand him as a coward. However, during an exercise in which Mainwaring collapses with smoke inhalation, it is Godfrey who, at risk to himself, rescues him.

    Director:Harold Snoad
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 12 - Man Hunt
    7.5/10(155 votes)

    #12 - Man Hunt

    S3:E12

    Walker has found a discarded parachute which he cuts up to make ladies' knickers. This leads to an embarrassing examination of the ladies' pants to determine their colour as British parachutes are white and Germans are cream. Using a tracker dog, the platoon go into the woods where they trap a man with a foreign accent – but he is an Austrian birdwatcher hunting the rare golden oriole.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 13 - No Spring for Frazer
    7.9/10(159 votes)

    #13 - No Spring for Frazer

    S3:E13

    During weapons inspection, Mainwaring scolds Frazer for losing a single spring, rendering the Lewis gun useless, and HQ has no spare parts, so even a court-martial may follow. Frazer believes a coffin has been delivered to the funeral parlour, where the men discover it's at Mr Bluett's surviving brother's home. The hilarious treasure hunt continues even after the burial.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 14 - Sons of the Sea
    8.2/10(168 votes)

    #14 - Sons of the Sea

    S3:E14

    When a bank client's debt means his rowing boat must be auctioned, Mainwaring can't resist acquiring it for river patrols, however overstretched his men already are. Frazer supplements the nautical novice's Seascouts manual 'knowledge', and becomes the coxswain. But Mainwaring disregards all warnings, so they row through mist straight into sea. Hearing strange voices, they assume they are in Nazi-occupied France and hide, until they wake in a moving train.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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Season 3 Ratings Summary

"The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones" is the best rated episode of "Dad's Army" season 3. It scored 7.5/10 based on 188 votes. Directed by David Croft and written by Unknown, it aired on 9/11/1969. This episode is rated 0.1 points higher than the second-best, "Battle School".